A stain of crimson with little mounds of red, specks of white scattered all over the surface, lines still flowing toward the ground, crawling downward upon a grey wall, seeping into cracks.
All that remained of what this splash of red had been were four pieces of mushy flesh, two hands and two feet.
A bizarre dark fog permeated the air, pitch black particles floating about as they wished, the clouds arranged into a spiral, giving the impression of an of pure darkness, in its center, a sun casting a pale blue light, the astral body unmoving, remaining in the very same spot.
Loimos had been sucked into a realm, this one actively pulling everything around inside, which was obvious by just looking from afar as a perfect demi-sphere was carved into the ground around this entrance, this behaviour seemed very instinctual as its dark, boneless arms were still reaching around even though it must have taken all that it possibly could for years by now.
Instead of remaining as a slug of rot, Loimos formed into his typical form after arriving within, as the environment here was interfering with all of his powers and energies, the black fog seeming to be the source of this disturbance, but it was all, it wouldn't be long when the undead adapted fully.
Though, not long after he took his humanoid appearance, one the of living denizens tried to get the jump on him, a man garbed in mismatched articles of clothing and wielding a machete with chips along its edge, this attempt was met with a crushing failure as this stranger was closer in substance to juice than anything else.
Picking the fallen blade, Loimos inspected its craftsmanship, clearly, the blade had not been forged by the hand of a smith, the handle not put together by a master woodworker or any other relevant professional, it had been created through much more automated means with little attention to the small mistake and without being properly tested.
Which seemed in line with what the man had worn on his person as well, before his garments and flesh were melded into bloody goo, the clothes in his possession had appeared similarly lacking in recognisable marks of hand-on craftsmanship.
This was certainly interesting, but Loimos turned his attention to the surroundings instead, the fog's ability to disrupt his abilities seemed to be one of its lesser capabilities, as it had completely covered-up the living's approach, even muffling steps and obscuring his appearance.
For all intents and purposes, the fog seemed to force those within to a drastically low level of perception, the man had probably only noticed Loimos when only mere meters separated the two of them, already, this realm seemed like a good spot for Prikrip to demonstrated what he could do when out of his element, the crooked bird-like minor lord being a master of combat equipped with an innate ability that allowed to bring down foes regardless of how resilient they may be, his capability to stay airborne and move with dreadful agility also allowing for him to take on enemies that would normally be above his level.
As such, a realm where all senses were reduced, and where darkness awareness did not function would provide an entirely different type of challenge, as the mission would be to track down the livings hiding in the black fog whilst making sure to not be snuck on.
This seemed like the perfect realm for Prikrip, Loimos just needed to look around a bit more as unlike before, he couldn't just extend his senses to get a good grasp of all the intricacies governing this place, not even capable of getting an idea of how large it was.
The architecture and environment was reminiscent of a few other realms he had inspected, all had been nearly, or completely devoid of energies and always appearing rather small in the sizes of their hills, mountains and other natural formations, the people there had been just their basic selves without enhancements of any abilities or even just the system.
It had been the same for the man Loimos just squashed, however, the presence of this fog was clearly setting this realm apart from the rest, stepping into one of the many tall constructions, which were all mostly grey in colour, the method of building used here differed from anything Loimos had gotten to see before, it appeared to be made out of stone entirely, but there were bars of steel incorporated inside of the wall, probably as reinforcement.
Most of the windows had glass, or at least used to as most of it laid somewhere broken into shards, signs of destruction were common, many doors had been broken down, some turned to splinters, most of the ones that were still standing were actually made from tougher materials, yet, indentations were visible upon them.
What laid behind those doors were small living spaces, furniture still inside, dust had agglomerated everywhere it could, making it easy to track whether or not someone had passed through like the undead currently was, footprints left in the thick carpet of grime, all drawers were open, but with a certain delicateness, as if someone had been afraid of being too noisy.
Old stains and puddles of blood were left in certain spots, cracking if one stepped upon them, violence had occurred, but a long time ago from the looks of it, Loimos would say that it had been exactly nine years if asked.
Slowly recovering his abilities, it was starting to seem like it was less the black fog, and the inherent lack of ambient energies that had caused a sudden shock to ripple through the putrid skeleton, perhaps a combination of the two.
In any case, he stepped up to what he assumed to be a kitchen area, sporting odd tools that were missing some components, but clearly indicated fully mechanical objects to make things work, Gharl and Tiloh almost worked exclusively upon such contraptions, and some of the things they had come up with somewhat resembled what was before him.
Meaning that he was looking at something meant to channel gas, presumably one that could catch on fire as this was placed right next to kitchen utensils meant to bear the food whilst it was cooked.
Apparently, the people who had passed through had not thought it necessary to take such items with them, although they had emptied many drawers, in which there had probably been knives, only a small one remained, with a slot in the center, indicating its purpose as a vegetable peeler.
Loimos picked it up, the green material used for the handle looked rather innocuous, but he had never seen anything like it yet.
Walking back out of this small home, the distinct sound of a key turning inside of its lock sounded out from one of the steel doors further away, although instantly recognised, it was much slower, turned bits by bits.
Clearly, the livings here were not big fans of being unnecessarily loud.
With the same typical casualness he exuded regularly, Loimos quietly stepped up to the door as it was still in the process of being unlocked, discerning that it was to be pulled from the inside to open up, he placed himself right in front of it, palms barely a millimeter away from its surface.
The second it began to open, he pushed back against it, not using that much force, but any amount of force pushing upon its surface was enough to surprise the one inside, who got hit squarely in the face by their own door, reeling from the hit as Loimos invited himself inside like he owned the place, shutting the door calmly and turning the key to lock it back.
Since walking around could not tell Loimos everything, he might as well just ask someone, the blessing of comprehension that he had hijacked just needed to function properly.